How Deer Repellents Work in Virginia

Taste-based deer repellents are applied directly to plants and will repel deer due to their undesirable taste. Taste based materials must be consumed in order to become effective. Damages sometimes can be substantial, but will occur before deer become trained to the fact that your plants have an offensive taste.

Odor-based deer repellents deter deer from your plants and property by their offensive smell. When applied directly to the landscapes that surround your yard, deer are less likely to try and eat the plant or approach your yard.

Odor- and Taste-based deer repellents provide the benefits of both kinds of materials.

Deer Repellent Treatment Strategy

Your Wildlife Professionals. Inc. will implement a deer management/treatment strategy that deters deer from coming on your property and destroying your valuable landscape. After evaluating the deer damage on your property, one of our biologists will carefully treat your landscaping with a fine mist of weather resistant organic repellant. Most services or product directions will suggest spot treating areas that have been damaged already. Your Wildlife Professionals. Inc. will blanket your entire property, which in most cases will change a deer’s pattern and keep them away from your property. Deer are creatures of habit and once they realize an odorized threat or that your landscape is an undesirable food source, they will steer clear and look elsewhere.

To ensure maximum protection, and to let the deer know that your property is off limits, we suggest spraying/treating year round. Our deer repellent service is necessary in the summer as new plant growth constantly appears and just as crucial in the winter when a deer’s natural foods are scarce. An average yard is treated 9-12 times per year and the price varies according to the size of your yard and what you have planted.

Benefits to Our Deer Repellant Services

By using Your Wildlife Professionals, Inc. deer repellant services, you will receive many benefits such as:
- Save large amounts of money by not having to replace your trees, shrubs, and flowers on an annual basis.

- Eliminate the need for unsightly and expensive fences.

- Be able to enjoy your landscape instead of feeling frustrated and angry about it.

- Decrease deer traffic on your property which will result in less deer droppings on your lawn and less potential for tick-borne diseases.

Virginia White-tailed Deer Identification

Deer Description:

The white-tailed deer is probably one of the most well known animals in urban environments. Its moderately long and white-haired underside of its tail that waives at you as it runs away is its most obvious detail when identifying the species. The males will have antlers during part of the year and females never develop antlers.

Deer Body Size

Deer Average Adult Length: 54” - 78” long.

Deer Tail Length: 6” - 11 1/2” long.

Deer Average Adult Weight: 100 – 300 pounds. (National Average)

Deer Fawn Young at Birth: reddish-brown to reddish yellow with white spots.

Average Deer Fawn Weight: 4 – 7 pounds at birth.

Average Deer Fawn Length: 17” – 19” long at birth.

3 – 5 Months: Loose their spots.

Deer Voice & Sounds:

Loud, hoarse, high pitched shriek when scared or threatened. You will often hear them snort or blow when standing still. This is usually communication to other deer of a possible threat that they see or smell. It may also be used to scare a motionless object that they may perceive as a threat to make it move. Both bucks and does will stamp their feet on the ground whether threatened or not. This usually precedes the snort or the blow. Fawns will baa and does will bleat for communication when separated. The doe is always within range to hear the fawn baa if distressed.

Other Information About White-tailed Deer in Virginia

Your Wildlife Professionals, Inc. provide deer removal & control on residential and commercial properties in Virginia. It is not always important to know everything about deer, but often clients need to know other information about deer in Virginia. Below is some additional information about deer, such as deer habitat, where do deer live, home range of a deer, deer food, deer habits, average life span of a deer, and deer health concerns that you may want to know. If you live in Alexandria, Arlington, Bedford, Blacksburg, Bristol, Charlottesville, Covington, Chesapeake, Danville, Fairfax, Fredericksburg, Hampton, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Lynchburg, Loudon, Manassas, Martinsville, Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond, Roanoke, Smith Mountain Lake, Staunton, Virginia Beach, Waynesboro, Williamsburg, Winchester, Wytheville, or Yorktown Virginia and would like to know more about deer, please give us a call.

The white-tailed deer prefers timbered areas with borders which provides favorable browse close to cover or areas close to agriculture.

Home or Where Do Deer Live:

The white-tailed deer does not have a permanent home and do not prepare a nest for the fawns. Their home usually changes with food abundance.

Home Range of a Deer:

1/2 – 1 ½ square miles. Shifts with food abundance. A bucks range during the breeding season or rut may extend out to 5 miles.

Deer Food:

White-tailed deer are browsing animals. They feed primarily on leaves, twigs, fruits of trees, shrubs, and the foliage of herbaceous plants. They will eat seeds, especially out of bird feeders, grasses and agricultural plants. When acorns start falling in September, they are the preferred food source until they are gone.

Deer Habits:

They are active throughout the day. Mostly from late afternoon through the night into the early morning daylight hours.

Average Life Span of a Deer:

2 - 3 years in the wild. Maximum lifespan is 20 years, but few live up to 10 years.

White-tailed deer serve as a feeding host and can transfer ticks that may have Lyme, Ehrlichiosis, and Babesiosis.

White-tailed deer are often the blame for Lyme disease. Lyme disease is a bacterium that is manufactured from a rodent, such as a chipmunk, that is moved by a nymph stage tick from the rodent to a human. White-tailed deer cannot contract Lyme disease. White-tailed deer are a host that the adult tick feeds off of until it falls off the deer, then gets on a person.

Damage to ornamental plants, trees, shrubs, and flowers by white-tailed deer has increased dramatically over recent years. Deer damage to home landscapes and gardens is the number one complaint in urban areas. An integrated approach to deer damage management can often be the most optimal way to deal with the problem. Using any one or a combination of strategies including population management, fencing, plant selection, and commercial repellants can be the best approach to minimize deer damage.

Your Wildlife Professionals, Inc. offers a deer repellent treatment service which uses a combination of organic products to prevent deer from eating your valuable landscape. After years of research, experiments and field tests, Your Wildlife Professionals, Inc. wildlife biologists have designed a successful treatment program using a combination of deer repellants. Our deer repellent treatment is environmentally safe, harmless to humans and pets, and will not damage trees, shrubs, or flowers.

Repellants discourage deer feeding by having an offensive taste, odor, or a combination of both. Continuous use of the same product will prove to be ineffective, and repellants that work in one location may not work in another. Our best results have been found in areas with moderate deer pressure and feeding. Areas with high deer densities, which is rare in our area, will continue to experience some damage because your area has most likely surpassed its carrying capacity and alternate food sources have been extinguished.